Science & Tech news · 31 October 2026
ESA's Hera Probe Spots Both Asteroids Separately for the First Time
Europe's Hera spacecraft has resolved the binary asteroid system Didymos and Dimorphos as two distinct objects for the first time, closing in at 1,280 km ahead of a November rendezvous.
SpaceX Launches 27 Starlink Satellites on Halloween Falcon 9 Flight
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in the early hours of Halloween, adding 27 more Starlink satellites to a constellation that already numbers more than 11,000 spacecraft.
A Physicist Builds a Miniature Universe and Watches Time Emerge Without a Clock
A University of Birmingham physicist used roughly 24,000 ultracold atoms to create a quantum system where time emerged internally from entropy changes, offering the first experimental evidence of how time itself may arise.
Cold War Spy Satellites Reveal 54% Acceleration in Asia's Glacier Loss
Scientists using declassified KH-9 reconnaissance imagery taken between 1973 and 1980 found that ice loss across High Mountain Asia accelerated by 54% after 2000, threatening water supplies for millions of people who depend on glacier-fed rivers.
Microplastics Found in Every Sierra Nevada Snowfall Sample, Threatening California's Water
UC Riverside scientists discovered plastic particles at all seven Sierra Nevada sampling sites during active snowstorms, raising concern about contamination of the snowpack that supplies 30% of California's fresh water.